ELABORACIÓN DEL PLAN HACCP

The Learning Material Markup Language (LMML) is developed in Germany.

The difference with the other standards presented in this document is that in this case metadata are not applied externally to the educational resources, like an header or an envelope, but rather are integrated into the content. This implies that it is possible to supply information for each conceptual component of the resource, fostering more powerful mechanisms of information retrieval and composition. The drawback is that LMML resources are written in XML language, though allowing insertion of pieces of multimedia content. Also existing learning contents in other electronic form, such as MS Word or MS Powerpoint documents, can be directly integrated in LMML modules as media objects.

LMML is a standard for the XML based description of e-learning, based on the conceptual Passau Teachware Model.

The e-learning content is organized in modules of different types. Each module may itself contain further modules and may be associated with other LMML modules in different ways. In this hierarchy the basic conceptual units are called Content Modules.

1. ContentModules: small units like definitions or examples. They are composed of ContentObjects, that can be structured using StructureObjects.

2. MediaObjects: specializations of ContentObjects, like text, images or sounds; they refer to the actual multimedia content, possibly declaring its type to indicate the visualization tool (e.g. an external plug-in.

3. StructureObjects: specializations of ContentObjects, they allow to structure any kind of ContentObject. For example, list and table elements can be recursively nested.

4. StructureModules: section and collection provide the ability to structure ContentModules. In general, also StructureModules can be recursively nested.

LMML provides a framework that can be instantiated to different domains of application, because it is extensible and can provide specific elements for different educational fields. As a matter of fact, the LMML framework is the XML binding of a general teachware model. The instantiations of specific fields are XML bindings of the appropriate models; an example could be a specific model for Computer Science courses. For this reason, LMML actually consists of a family of XML markup languages for e-learning contents.

LMML describes only the teachware content, while visualization style is strictly separated and can be personalized. It is marked up with XML itself.

LMML is extendable with different XML-languages. For example, in mathematics contents LMML uses elements out of the language MathML to describe mathematical expressions and formulas.

Metadata

Each kind of LMML element is identified by a specific tag. Moreover, LMML provides a basic set of metadata, applicable to any element:

• general (such as author, title, catchwords),

• time-related (such as creation, modification, release and expiration date), • educational (such as difficulty, abstraction).

Similar to the LMML elements that represent learning contents, also the metadata representing information about learning contents is adaptable to different specific fields. The target group as well as the level of details can be described, for example basics, structure or specialization. Didactical- pedagogical comments are also possible, in order to describe the content in a detailed way.

The modular structure of LMML teachware allows the fragmentation of a specific field content in any granularity, based on the identified conceptual units. This makes it possible to reuse LMML modules, starting from single multimedia elements like images, sound or animation, via content modules with a specific meaning like motivation, definition or simple text paragraphs, till to course paragraphs, course chapters or even whole courses. A course cannot only be reused as a whole course, but as a paragraph of another course, or a single paragraph can be reused as a whole course. Courses and paragraphs are both treated as modules in this modeling. This makes a smooth transition between the structure of a course and the structure of its contents. The separation of content and visualization further facilitates the flexible reuse.

LMML teachware shows a hierarchical structure, which reflects a possible hierarchical organization of the projects concerning the creation of learning material. Authors of media objects create multi media contents, e.g. images or animations; authors of content modules use them for instance in illustrations, motivations; the course designer finally composes the course. Besides this bottom-up procedure, it is also possible to create modules in a top-down way. Similar to the creation of traditional documents it is possible to create a classification at first. Afterwards the classification can be filled step by step with contents. The strict separation of content and visualization is the base allowing, for example, that a definition can be used within a LMML module and at the same time as part of a glossary. Glossaries or content indexes can be created automatically.

LMML documents are XML documents. The documents can be created with any text editor, though it is recommended to use special XML editors, possibly supporting the author with syntax highlighting, validating of LMML documents, project management, integration of XSL transformations and so on. One possibility to publish LMML learning contents in the WWW is shown by the LMML tutorial. A short introduction in the LMML tutorial is available at

http://daisy.fmi.uni-passau.de/pakmas/lmml/11/doc/en/html/

The activities in the QUIS project will be directed towards QUality in e-learning, Interoperability and reusability of e-learning material and development of Standards. The project will also look at cost beffectiveness in e-learning.

Quality in e-learning is important to be able to exchange both learning materials and learning practi- ces across HEI’s in Europe. To establish joint study programs it is essential that cooperating instituti- ons accept each others Quality Assurance Systems (QAS).

Author team of QUIS reports

Contributions to QUIS reports are produced by staff members at the partner institutions.

All of these persons have taken part in discussions and production leading to this and other reports. Contact authors for this particular report are listed on the front page.

Partner Institution Country Staff members contributing

P1 TISIP Research Foundation NO Tor Atle Hjeltnes, Thorleif Hjeltnes, Geir Maribu, Arne B. Mikalsen

P2 Norwegian Technical &

Natural science University, NTNU NO Line Kolås, Arvid Staupe

P3 Mid Sweden University, MIUN SE Bertil Andersson, Börje Hansson, Åke Malmberg P4 Universita' La Sapienza, UoR IT Maria de Marsico, Andrea Sterbini, Marco Temperini,

Emanuele Panizzi P5 SZÁMALK Education and

Information Technology Ltd., SEL SEL Lászlo Kómaroni

Other staff members may have been involved with activities related to the project, course development, dissemination, secretarial work etc, but are not directly involved with the content and authoring of these reports.